The restaurant was founded in 1987 in the Johannesburg suburb Rosettenville when Portuguese-born audio engineer Fernando Duarte took his entrepreneur friend Robert Brozin to a Portuguese takeaway called Chickenland for a meal. After trying the chicken with peri peri, they bought the restaurant for about 80,000 rand (equivalent of about £25,000 at the time).[3] They renamed the restaurant Nando's after Fernando's first born son. After two years (1989) the restaurant had four outlets, three in Johannesburg and one in Portugal.[4][3] As of 2017, there were over 1,000 Nando's branches in 35 countries.[5]

Fernando Duarte and his friend Robert Brozin are the founders of the first Nando's restaurant bought a joint previously called "ChickenLand" and renamed it Nando's. They opened it in 1987.[3][10][11] By 1997, there were 105 Nando's restaurants in the country.[12]

Nando's has been operating in Botswana since 1993.[4] There are currently 17 restaurants in Botswana: 9 in Gaborone, 1 in Jwaneng, 1 in Maun, 2 in Francistown, 1 in Mahalapye, 1 in Palapye, 1 in Kasane and 1 in Letlhakane.

Nando's has been established in Malaysia since 1998. As of February 2019, there were 76 restaurants operating throughout the country, with plans to operate 100 locations with about 2,000 employees within 4-5 years. The vast majority of the locations are centered around greater Kuala Lumpur.[24][25]

Nando's was first established in Ireland in 2008. The company opened its flagship restaurant on St Andrew Street in the city centre of Dublin in November 2011, employing 60 staff members to manage a 3,800 square feet (350 m2) space spread over two floors.[30][31] As of early 2015, they have expanded to a total of 10 outlets in Ireland.[32]

Nando's opened its first UK restaurant in 1992 in the west London suburbs of Ealing and Earls Court, initially focusing on takeaway food.[3] The UK arm, owned by the Enthoven family via a private equity company, struggled until chairman Dick Enthoven put his son Robert in control. The focus then moved from takeaways to a mixed service (counter ordering and table service) model.[3] Branches also chose individual design and decor to move away from a restaurant-chain image. The company employs around 8,000 staff in the UK and, as of 2013, had over 280 branches in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with some 60 being halal.[3]

In 2010, Nando's UK won the Sunday Times's best place to work award in the big company category.[33] Its sauces and marinades were also retailed in UK supermarkets.[33]

Nando's claims to have the largest collection of South African art in the UK, with over 5,000 works displayed in restaurants; original artworks are commissioned by the company.[33][34]

Nando's takeaway can also be ordered online and by phone to be collected in store. Nando’s takeaway has also expanded into delivery in some locations.

Nando's has been in the Australian marketplace since 1990, when the first restaurant opened in Tuart Hill in Western Australia. As of 2013[update] there were over 270 restaurants in Australia, with further growth planned.[37][38] Nando's Australia uses certified Halal chicken throughout its chains, and they do not come in contact with any non Halal food items.[39] However, they do sell alcohol and bacon in many restaurants.

In Australia, Nando's ran an advertising campaign based around the 2002 political controversy regarding the mandatory detention of refugees. The detainees had been waging a hunger strike campaign, even resorting to physically sewing their lips closed. Nando's adverts proclaimed that the strikers "decided to unsew their lips after hearing the news that with every Nando's quarter chicken combo, Nando's are giving away an extra quarter chicken free". Melbourne's Sphere Advertising said that the ad was designed to spark controversy, saying that they knew that "there's a section of our audience that's going to be uncomfortable... but we want to evoke a response".[41]

During the South African national elections of 2009, Nando's made an advert lampooning African National Congress Youth League then president Julius Malema by using a puppet that resembled him. Malema's lawyers sued Nando's and the original advert was removed. However, an altered version was released, with the puppet's face pixelated and the voice altered. The puppet used in the advert was later sold at auction for R100,000 which was donated to an educational charity.[42]

In 2011 Nando's launched a "Last dictators" advert in South Africa.[43] The 60-second commercial shows a sad Robert Mugabe dining alone at Christmas in a large mansion while he reminisces about "happier times" with former dictators, such as playing water tag with Muammar Gaddafi, making snow angels in the sand with Saddam Hussein, singing Karaoke with Mao Zedong, pushing P. W. Botha on a swing set, and riding a British Covenanter cruiser tank with Idi Amin in a similar fashion to Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet embracing each other from the movie Titanic, while the music from "Those Were the Days" is played. Musekiwa Kumbula, holder of the Nando's franchise in Zimbabwe, said his group "strongly feels the advertisement is insensitive and in poor taste". The advert also offended Chipangano, a Zimbabwean youth militia loyal to Mugabe, who then demanded an apology from Nando's, threatened to boycott the South Africa-based chain, and demanded the advert be withdrawn or the restaurant face retribution.[44] Nando's South Africa subsequently withdrew the advert citing threats to its staff in Zimbabwe from a youth group.[45]

Both The Guardian newspaper (UK) and the American non-profit publication ICIJ received documents in July 2014 revealing the details of past and present offshore clients of wealth managers Kleinwort Benson, including the Nando's restaurant group. The Guardian published its belief that, through the use of businesses in Malta, Guernsey and the Netherlands, Enthoven legally reduces the group's UK corporation tax bill by "up to a third". According to the British newspaper, Enthoven's profits eventually accumulate in the Kleinwort Benson-managed "Taro III Trust" that is based in Jersey and contains at least £750 million.[7]

While no member of the Enthoven family agreed to speak with The Guardian, a company representative explained that UK tax laws are not applicable to Enthoven, as "He [Enthoven] is not resident in the US or the UK." The spokesperson also stated that, in the UK, Nando's paid corporation tax of £12.6 million on a profit of £58.2 million for the year ending February 2013.[7]